Maggie Appleton

Something I've been thinking about is what happens once the market for software developers becomes saturated. I think the answer is something along the lines of blending traditionally off-line skills (illustration, etc), domain knowledge, and software together. The ability to leverage the scale of the internet is still a form of tech-thinking, even if the software engineering part is not the main focus.

I think software alone has relatively fewer problems left to solve compared to solutions that require multi-domain thinking. So for the situation you've outlined, I think there is tremendous value in blending healthcare and software, or art and software. There are people who have found a niche in blending these ideas together [0], and I think the trend will continue.

So you shouldn't despair that your kids are not interested in "tech" now. It could be that once they are comfortable with their first domain choice, they will recognize the value in tech-enabled growth. You can then be there to help them realize that value by introducing system and algorithmic thinking, as well as tooling like vi or emacs.

[0] https://maggieappleton.com/

If you mean databases as in a "Personal Information System" (notes, tasks, catalogs, etc.), I use Grist and Tana.

Grist [1] is an "augmented" but still "classic" relational DB builder. It is (kind of) open-source, backed by SQLite, and you can self-host it. I like it because it is user-friendly while also being highly programmable (Python formulas, widget grid) and "data-friendly" (nice filters, Merge imports...)

Tana [2] is a less classic kind of DB. The main view is an "advanced" outliner (like Roam). But every line of text could also act as an "universal Form" and a "node" in a semantic graph DB.
Wherever and whenever you type, you can turn your unstructured, freeform blocks of text into "as you go" structured data. This works well for Evergreen-Notes [3], Tasks, Contacts...

A bonus : for any kind of references (and not just citations), Zotero is very flexible. As local/opensource personal DBs go, it is a solid bookmark manager and pdfs-annotations store.

[1] https://www.getgrist.com/
[2] https://tana.inc/
[3] https://maggieappleton.com/evergreens

Nostr's very cool tech and I'm excited to see where it ends up. But I'm not sure it'll make for good social networks/apps that I'll care about. ActivityPub and Matrix get flak on the account portability issue and it's a valid one but it (and their design in general) provide a pressure on their communities to be very "cozy-web"[0] despite the few leviathan instances. Nostr's more than flexible (almost under-specified) that you can build your cozy spaces on top of it but I'm convinced its design allows it to be a real decentralized contender for the big social and I fear that's where its custodians are headed. It won't be long before we see Nostr service providers that replace all the core functionalities of Twitter like a good algorithm and moderation[1].

Personally, I don't want Twitter with pki. I don't want Twitter at all. I really hope Nostr keeps it cozy but hey, at least you'll get to personally choose your algorithm.

[0]: https://maggieappleton.com/cozy-web

[1]: https://primal.net has a great start

> There is nothing stopping any of us to improve the internet. We surround ourselves with good people and good online experiences. This improves our outlook of the internet and staying away from the bad parts helps us grow our minds. In the end feeling good of the time invested online is wonderful.

Most definitions I’ve seen of the dead internet are in areas where generative content can be posted wholesale. Mostly everything you see when you google something.

However the main counter to this is as you mention: “We surround ourselves with good people and good online experiences.“

If we’re to assume these are 100% real people, then there has to be some sort of gatekeeper. These closed off communities become what Maggie Appleton calls the Cozy Web.[1]

That’s great, but it still makes it look like the internet generally is dead.

https://maggieappleton.com/ai-dark-forest

Great content, bringing context & view to a long schizm of systems. And talking about ways forwards that start to expose the reapmpower, bridge end users from their low capability zone into something that they can keep elevating themselves with.

> Programming portals are small, scoped areas within a graphical interface that give users access to command lines and text-based programmaing. They open a little window into the underlying functionality of an interface. One that lets the user view the underlying properties of their environment, and control a specific set of data, objects, or features of the application.

I think of Maggie's excellent excellent overview of digital gardens as their defining post[1], but it's grear to see some less meta excellent works from this garden of ideas.

[1] https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history

Cool people:

• https://tracydurnell.com

• https://www.benkuhn.net

• https://schmud.de

• https://brandur.org

• https://bytes.zone

• https://cassidoo.co

• https://www.chrbutler.com

• https://sive.rs

• https://fasterthanli.me

• https://akkartik.name

• https://www.todepond.com

• https://blog.gingerbeardman.com

• https://gwern.net

• https://interconnected.org

• https://jacobfilipp.com

• https://johnnywebber.com

• https://maggieappleton.com

• https://bernsteinbear.com

• https://pketh.org

• https://rachsmith.com

• https://sonnet.io

• https://stevenscrawls.com

• https://www.bookofjoe.com

• https://winnielim.org

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Cool directories:

• https://blogs.hn

• https://ooh.directory

• https://deadsimplesites.com

• https://peopleandblogs.com

• https://nownownow.com

• https://blogroll.org

• https://kagi.com/smallweb